Pittsburgh Politics

I do realize the Pittsblog readership does not need me to summarize news for them. But Corilyn Shropshire digs up the turmoil surrounding the project to get community wireless in place by the All-Star game... now clearly not going to happen. The engineer in me had thought the timeline was just too compressed to get this rolled out in time, but it turns out that the penny stock company that was supposed to do this had its president resign along with 5 others on its board of directors in the days just BEFORE City Council approved the program. too funny. Actually if you read their resignation email, several say they are resigning because they want to participate in debtor-in-possession lending to the firm or are resigning on the advice of counsel. Just not a good sign of financial strength.

Comments

I haven't been following this story that closely, but Pittsburgh is dropping the ball on this one. How is the City doing, overall, in its plans to showcase Pittsburgh during All Star Game weekend? Are other projects like the downtown wireless-network just as muddled?

When I first heard of the plans to have public wifi in place before the all star game, I knew it would not happen. I am all for helping Pittsburgh with it's image as a great city, but this could have been a disaster and an embarassment for Pittsburgh. Instead of trying to force a false image, maybe the we should concentrate on the many positives that Pittsburgh has to offer.

I can see some upside to building a wireless network downtown, but I figure the project is more flash than substance. I gather that building an open access network is an attempt to attract people downtown. Ideally, people work downtown in a hotspot commons area, perhaps engaging in some ad hoc collaboration. They certainly might be enticed to sample some of the local services.

Is there a business sector that might utilize such an investment in infrastructure? I suppose that is the hope.

Debtor in possession (DIP) financing is borrowing that takes place while a company is going through bankruptcy. Becasue it makes little sense for someone to lend money to a firm that may have its debt vacated, it typically has higher priority over existing claims against the company. That the company may need DIP lending says something about the due dilligence that took place on this deal is all. -Chris